Job Applicant Privacy Notice

As part of any recruitment process, and any subsequent employment, The Regard Group Ltd collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants/subsequent employees. The organisation is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.

What information do we collect?

The Regard Group Ltd collects a range of information about you. This includes:

Details from your referees in support of your employment/educational history and/or character reference, to comply with CQC requirements

Whether or not you have a disability for which the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process;

Information in relation to your current health to fulfil our duty to ensure you are fit to work in the role you are being considered for and in order to support you through reasonable adjustments in the workplace;

Equality and diversity information to monitor inclusivity of a wide range of candidates;

Information in relation to any criminal records in accordance with the Disclosure and Barring Service, together with relevant documentation to support your application for such purposes, and a discrepancy form where disclosures have been made;

Statutory information such as information about your entitlement to work in the UK and driving licences/insurance information where you are considered to be a driver as part of your role at the Regard Group;

Interview notes and appropriate tests to support your application for a position;

Information with regards to relatives or friends working within the organisation to ensure that necessary safeguards are put in place;

Bank information and emergency contacts/Next of Kin details;

Supervision and appraisals throughout employment, in line with our policies;

Grievances and disciplinaries, in line with our policies.

The Regard Group Ltd may collect this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, CVs or resumes, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.

We may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers. We will seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made and will inform you that we are doing so.

Data will be stored in a range of different places, including on your application record, in HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).

In the event of a successful application, during employment we will also collect further data in line with your contract and with legislative requirements.

Why does The Regard Group Ltd process personal data?

Based on your consent to proceed, we process your personal data to initiate a recruitment process for you. We may also need to process your data to enter into a contract with you, and subsequently to manage our contractual obligations to you.

In some cases, we need to process data to ensure that we are complying with legal obligations. For example, it is mandatory to check a successful applicant's eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts.

The Regard Group Ltd has a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows us to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate's suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. We may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.

The Regard Group Ltd may process special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation or religion or belief, to monitor recruitment statistics. We may also collect information about whether or not applicants are disabled to make reasonable adjustments for candidates who have a disability. We process such information to carry out our obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

The Regard Group is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences because it is necessary for us to carry out our obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to your employment.

If your application is successful during your employment we will need to process data to enter into a contract with you and subsequently to manage our contractual obligations to you e.g. for payroll, pension contribution etc. Also, to record any subsequent employment events.

If your application is unsuccessful, The Regard Group Ltd will keep your details for a minimum of 6-months in order to ensure the information is available in the event of any dispute. We may hold it for longer if you consent to joining our Talent Bank, to be considered for future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. We will ask for your consent before we keep your data for this purpose and you are free to withdraw your consent at any time.

Who has access to data?

Your information may be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR and recruitment team, interviewers involved in the recruitment process, managers in the business area with a vacancy and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.

We will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and we make you an offer of employment. We will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you, employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and health professionals where health disclosures have been made.

If your application is successful your personal data will be shared to relevant departments to manage our contractual obligation to you e.g. Payroll.

For how long does The Regard Group Ltd keep data?

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, the organisation will hold your data on file for 6 (six) months after the end of the relevant recruitment process. If you agree to allow us to keep your personal data on file, we will hold your data on file for a further 6 (six) months for consideration for future employment opportunities. At the end of that period, or once you withdraw your consent, your data is deleted or destroyed. You will be asked when you submit your CV whether you give us consent to hold your details for the full 12 months in order to be considered for other positions or not. Email reminders will be regularly sent to remind you we hold your details, you can remove consent on receipt of these messages at any point.

If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your Human Resources file (electronic and paper based) and retained during your employment and for some time post-employment. The Regard Group Retention Policy outlines the length of time we retain your data post-employment, these are in line with statutory retention records.

Your rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

Access and obtain a copy of your data on request;

Require the organisation to change incorrect or incomplete data;

Require the organisation to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing;

Object to the processing of your data where The Regard Group Ltd is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing.

Ask the organisation to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override the organisation's legitimate grounds for processing data.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer at dpo@regard.co.uk.

If you believe that the organisation has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner.

What if you do not provide personal data?

You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to The Regard Group Ltd during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, we may not be able to process your application properly or at all.
You are under no obligation to provide information for equal opportunities monitoring purposes and there are no consequences for your application if you choose not to provide such information. However, this information may help us to improve and diversify our services if you provide this to us.